A change in pace
by Fears Unspoken
Summary: One rainy night Meg goes missing. The burst angel's team search for her restlessly but she's disappeared without a trace. A week later she reappears like nothings happened but she's...different somehow. Can her team live with that? T for Blood and lang.
1. Missing

A/N: Yay, my first burst angel fic. I personally loved this series. I would have written a fic sooner but I IS A LAZY MOFO. I found my inspiration after reading such a _horrible _example of a Burst angel's fan fiction. I won't mention the author or the title of the story but if you'd been around the block, or read most of the fan fics here, you'll know which one it was by what I put in this. Seriously! What they condensed into two SHORT chapters I could have made into, like, five masterfully well done ones!!! It's embarrassing to see such a good concept go down the drain like that. Anyway enough of the rant. I'm going to make up for this little...incident(to put it kindly). This is sligthly AU and don't be surprised if the characters have their personalities changed a bit. If it's too OOC be sure to tell me before I get carried away with it. Hope none of you guys are grammar Nazis because this will most likely have a few mistakes, if not alot.

(EDIT): Sorry I just read over this with a fresh mind and realized there were way too many mistakes for my liking. So I fixed them. I might even replace this chapter all together. It's not flowing right to me. Or not. As I said, I'm lazy.

A change in pace

Today seemed to be a busy day for most. Sei was at a meeting, Jo was out upgrading her guns, and even Kyohei was busy with some kind of cooking test that his school held. The trailer was mostly quiet; Or at least it _should_ have been.

Amy and Meg, the only two not busy, were arguing up a storm. It started with a simple disagreement over what show to watch. God knows how the argument got to where it was now. As of this moment, each was extremely pissed off and ready to tell the other to go jump off a cliff. Since there were no cliffs around, it's possible Amy did the next best thing: Attacking Meg's ego.

"Well at least I'm not useless!" Amy shouted over her shoulder as she searched in the cabinet for a box of cookies.

"Useless?! I am not useless!" Meg said, reaching over Amy to grab the cookies before the computer wiz got to them, and then holding the cookies up over her head.

The little girl jumped for them. "Well what would you call it? You're not actually useful."

"What?!"

"Well what _do_ you do around here that counts as helping?"

A bit taken back, Meg hesitated.

Stopping mid-jump, Amy smirked. "I thought so."

"What? That's crazy! Of course I help! I….I help a lot."

"Oh yeah, with what?" Amy didn't let her answer. "Think about it, Sei gets the contracts, I've got my computer, Jo takes care of the dirty work. Hell, even Kyo cooks and cleans sometimes. And just what do _you_ do?"

"……………" Meg's inability to answer pissed her off more than the annoying little girl in front of her. '_Useless. Ha.' _The very idea left a bad taste in her mouth.

Shaking her head, she stormed towards the door.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Amy shouted after her, though it wasn't necessary in their small trailer.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm making myself useful!" Meg went to the back to grab her wallet before making her way to the door again. It opened before Meg even touched it. A woman stepped in, but stayed on the bottom step, water dipped from the soaked silver hair currently plastered on her face.

Jo was home.

Sometime during Amy and Meg's fight the gray cloud day had turned into a rainy miserable one. It wasn't raining that hard, merely a heavy sprinkle really. Which meant either Jo had taken the long way home or she was walking very slowly. Either way, Meg suspected something was on her mind, distracting her.

Her partner slowly raised her head, one red eye peering out beneath her soaking hair to meet Meg's blue ones. "Going somewhere?"

Meg smiled. "Just popping out to get some groceries. If you want, I can stop by the movie place on the way back and pick up some movies for us to watch later. I think that new demon hunter movie you wanted to see just came out."

Jo shrugged. "I'm kinda tired right now."

"That's great. You can take a nap now and I'll wake you up when dinner's ready. Then we can watch something together later." She waited for the wet girl's reply.

Jo turned her head slightly to look around her. "It's starting to rain harder."

"I'll be fine. A little rain won't hurt me." Meg snatched her cowboy hat and slid pass Jo.

Jo wasn't sure if she liked the sound of this. Meg had always had a thing for finding trouble. Knowing her, she'd come back with a cold at the least.

As if Jo's thoughts reflected on her face, Meg gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine, trust me. Go take your nap."

_'It's not you that I don't trust.'_ Jo thought idly.

"Hey, do you have to take the cookies with you?" Amy called from inside the trailer.

Finally noticing she had the box clutched to her chest, Meg tossed them over to Jo, who caught them easily.

"Hang on to this till I get back, will ya?" And without waiting for another word, she pulled her hat on and sped in the direction of the nearest market.

_-----Several hours later----_

Jo was awoke with a shock by the sound of crashing pans. '_That better be dinner ready._' She growled to herself. Unfortunately it wasn't. The sound was just Kyohei trying to stir fry while looking for some spice Jo was sure she had never heard of. Unable to find the spice, a slightly frustrated Kyo had slammed down his cooking a little harder than necessary on some other pans that hadn't been put away yet. (He tends to get a little pissy when his meal doesn't go exactually as planned.)

While Kyo was having his silent hissy fit, Amy, oblivious to the world, sat two inches away from her computer screen doing whatever it was she was doing, and Sei, apparently back from her meeting, calmly flipped though her newspaper. It seemed the meeting went well but with Sei you'd never know until she felt the importance to tell you. Not that Jo really cared. What was curious was that Meg was nowhere in sight.

_'Must be doing something else, elsewhere.' _Was the first thought that came to mind.

"Has anyone seen the Thyme?" Kyohei's question cut though Jo's train of thought.

"The what?"

"Thyme, it's usually in a blue bottle with small pictures of leaves..on...them." Kyo trailed off when he realized it was pointless to ask. Half the time they didn't even know where the salt was, let alone the _thyme_.

Not looking up from her newspaper, Sei said. "I did the shopping last time. It's someone else's turn to get the groceries."

At the word groceries, Amy finally rejoined the world of the living and turned away from her computer. "Meg went to go get some."

At this Sei lowered her newspaper. "Speaking of which, where is she anyway?"

"You mean she hasn't come back yet?" Amy had been so absorbed in her computer she probably wouldn't have noticed an elephant stomp though the trailer, let alone a person. "She left hours ago."

"What?" Jo's sleepy mind finally came to speed with what they were saying_. 'Meg's missing....again.' _She knew something like this would happen. Jo mentally scowled at herself for not going with her.

The gunslinger hurried to get dressed to go rescue Meg from whatever trouble she had gotten herself into. Before heading out the door Sei stopped her.

"Don't take too long bringing her back. We have a job to do later." Their self-proclaimed leader's confidence in the silvered haired girl's ability to bring her friend back was almost touching. Almost.

"I won't be long." Jo nodded before dashing off into the night.

_----- Many days later----_

"Jo, you can't keep doing this. This is the third time this week you've collapsed from exhaustion." Sei paced around the bedroom like a caged panther as Jo tiredly watched her from her bed. "Recklessly putting yourself out there isn't going to help you find Meg any sooner."

"Sleeping won't bring her back." Jo monotonously replyed.

"Neither will passing out in the street!" Sei nearly shouted.

Catching herself, she took a deep breath and tried a different approach. "Look Jo, Amy's been hacking away all day, checking every surveillance camera and reports of any kind that could help us, using every code and back way she knows and she knows a lot of them. I'm sure she has a bundle of information just waiting to be sorted though. Now if you promise to _try _to get some rest, Amy and I will sort through it for you so when you get up you don't have to wait around here for some leads. How does that sound?"

As much as she hated to admit it, Jo was really tired and she hated going though paper trails. Maybe it was for the best. The exhausted gunslinger clutched the sheets in her fists. When she got up she _was _going to rescue Meg, and was going to kick some major ass when she found whoever took her. That was for certain. Jo took Sei's offer and resentfully layed back down.

'_Just hold on a little longer Meg. Just wait for me.'_

Sei hurriedly left Jo's room just in case she changed her mind. So far, she was cooperating. Sei needed to use the time she just bought them wisely. She knew it would be damn near impossible to keep the gunslinger within reason as long as Meg stayed missing. They'd been searching non-stop for days and hadn't found any clues that would point them in the right direction. Not that she'd lied to Jo... she was sure by now Amy had to have found _something. _

A thunder of clicks and taps was coming from Amy's room, as it had been for days now. The little computer genius had worked almost as diligently as Jo had. She rarely left her computer and barely slowed enough to eat, if she ate anything at all. Sei had to go as far as threatening to shut off the power to get her to even look away from the screen. On a number of occasions they found her sleeping on the keyboard and had to put her in her bed, but she was always back on-line the second she got up.

Sei's presence wasn't noticed as she stood in the door way. There was Amy as expected, hunched so close to the monitor Sei feared for the girl's vision. It wasn't until she saw the girl's shoulders tremble that she made her way to stand by the little computer genius, afraid she was going to faint. That wasn't the case, thankfully, but it made Sei worry all the same. Even though the older woman was right beside her, Amy still seemed unaware she was there. She just continued typing away as if in her own little world. The bandages wrapped around the little girl's fingers were cause for concern, a tribute to how hard she was trying. A drop of moisture dripping onto the keyboard caught Sei attention.

A tear leecked down Amy's cheek. Then a second. A hand on her shoulder brought her back to the real world.

"Oh, Sei, I- uh....I'll have a status report for you in a minute. I have to check this one other lead real quick." The computer wiz said, unaware of her own tears.

She had looked all day and night, checked out trail after trail, even gone as far as ghosting chat rooms to see if there were any rumors or if anyone would be dumb enough to brag out some leads or something, but there were none. No camera footage, no reported disturbances, no sightings, no nothing! Everything came out with nothing! Nothing, Nothing, Nothing! There had to be something she over looked. Something she missed. There had to be. If she just kept looking. If she just kept---.

Sei stilled her hands on the keyboard. Amy looked up at the older woman questionably.

All she said was. "We'll find her Amy. We'll find her."

At that moment Amy became aware of her surroundings. That her belly ached, her fingers hurt....that she was crying. She became aware of it all.

"It's all my fault Sei. She wouldn't have left if I hadn't of said the things I did. It's all my fault," she cried, choking on the tears rising in her throat.

The older woman pulled the sobbing girl into her arms and comforted the child the best she could. Stroking her hair and telling her over and over again. "We'll find her Amy. We'll find her."


	2. One week later

A/N: Wow. So many hits in only a couple of days. And a review too. Don't I feel special. Well that's enough to motivate me. Here's chapter two for ya but don't expect frequent updates. I'm lazy after all. But more reviews might change that.

Chapter 2

One week later

"Okay let's go over this again. There has to be something we're missing here. Give it to me from the beginning." Jo sighed, running her fingers through her hair.

Sei repressed a sigh of her own. They'd been over this a hundred times already but she guessed one more time couldn't hurt. "Fine, then. Meg went missing somewhere around one week ago while fetching some groceries. Several hours later we went searching for her. Statements with the store owners confirmed that Meg did, in fact, make it to the store, and left after purchases were made. In an alley way about three blocks from here, we found some discarded shopping bags, along with Meg's wallet close by."

Jo frown at the memory of finding Meg's wallet in the alleyway. It still had some cash in it, meaning whoever took her didn't do it for the money. But that didn't make her feel any better. She remembered the anger she felt when she saw the videos Meg had gone out of her way to get for her lying in a puddle near by. She had gotten just the ones Jo wanted to see too. Pushing away her thoughts, Jo tuned back into what Sei was saying.

"There were obvious signs of a struggle. Knocked over trash cans, ripped clothing, that, thankfully, didn't belong to Meg, and we even recovered some blood samples found on the clothing. With the rain at the time, that much was a miracle. After serious testing, we can confirm that the blood was, unfortunately, Meg's, thanks to the rare blood type she has. The number of assailants are still unknown, but estimated to be around, about, three of them."

Amy sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve. "We've already heard all this information before. The tracks aren't getting any fresher, you know."

"Amy-" Sei started before Jo interrupted her.

"She's right. We need more clues."

Sei sighed and began rubbing the bridge of her nose. "We gotta call today. They have a job for us. There's a drug deal going down by the harbor. They want us to put an end to it."

The older woman expected Jo to disagree, to say they should be looking for Meg instead, but the gunslinger surprised her.

Jo got up and retrieved her guns."Good. Now I can release some frustration."

"Be careful out there Jo." Sei called to her without turning around.

Jo scoffed.

"I'm serious Jo. The last mission, we had to unbury you from a pile of rubble."

"The job got done, didn't it?"

"Yes but you can't help Meg if you're dead, now can you?"

Jo didn't answer. Sei's words had hit her hard, but she knew the older woman was right.

Sei didn't worry when she heard Jo leave. She knew she made her point.

_-------At the harbor-----------_

A man groaned as he shifted to look down his scope more comfortably. From his rooftop he could see almost the whole harbor. A perfect place for a lookout. Or a sniper. He laughed inwardly at his own inside joke. He couldn't see why nobody appreciated his humor as much as he did. It certainly made things more interesting during those long grueling stake-outs, like this one. Nope, he wasn't going to fall asleep and fail the boss like the others had. He was confident he could keep himself entertained until his target came nosing around.

Then, almost on que, he saw her. Silver hair, red jacket, cowboy boots, and some nasty looking pistils. Yep, that was her alright. She came just as their inside man said she would. The man nearly bounced with excitement. Finally it was his turn. His turn to show the boss what he was worth. The bounty on the gunslinger's pretty little head wasn't a bad bonus either.

Raising his gun, the man took aim. From his laid position, his moving target wasn't that hard to pin under his bull's eye. Switching off the safety, he calculated the perfect head shot, wanting to look real good when he retold this story to the boys later.

_'Two inches down....now a few centimeters to the left and-'_ His thought were cut off by his scope turning black, almost as if something was covering it up.

He looked up just in time to catch the business end of a boot slamming into his face, knocking him out cold.

If he had been conscious, he might have heard his attacker giggle right before saying, "Sorry about that buddy but I can't let you do that."

His attacker leaned over the side of the building, surveying the harbor around the unsuspecting gunslinger.

"Looks like our friend Jo has walked into a trap and doesn't even know it yet." The attacker said as if the unconscious man could still hear her.

She smiled to herself. "It looks like she could use a little help."

--

Jo fired out a couple more rounds, hitting two men carrying machine guns. That took care of that problem. Now if only she had enough rounds to take care of the rest of the gang.

Sei's voice crackled from the communicator strapped to Jo's glove. "Jo, we've just been informed of a rat. It's a setup! Get out of there!"

"A bit too late for that." She managed to say before rolling behind some crates as they opened fire on her. Lucky for her, they had shitty aim.

"Jo get out of there now! They're too many of them. If one of them calls for backup-"

"I can take them. They're like kiddies in a theme park. The more the merrier!"

"Jo, I mean it!"

"Sorry can't hear you. In a middle of a gunfight here." She moved around the corner to fire back, purposely aiming for their guns instead of their gut.

Minutes later most of the gang found themselves without their guns or out of ammo, some without both, and not feeling as confident as they did in the beginning of this fight. In fact some of them, well...most of them, took off after getting their weapons shot out of their hands. The more loyal (more like suicidal) members stayed to finish the job, finding whatever they could to use as weapons: crowbars, spare pieces of wood, their fists, anything that could inflect damage of any kind. This was exactly what Jo wanted.

Replacing her guns in their holsters, she marched towards them with a strange look in her eye, cracking her knuckles soundly. The first guy she came to pulled his arm back but hesitated. Big mistake. She delivered a round about kick to his face before facing off with another man who charged at her with a crowbar. Catching the bar in one hand, she used the other to send a sky-rocketing uppercut to his chin. One after another they came at her, each one dropping like a rock after tasting her furious attacks. Her anger sang with each blow, knocking every guy in the vicinity senseless, but nothing could cool her rage.

'A_t least I can do this right.'_ She thought bitterly,wiping the blood off her cheek before gut checking some idiot and throwing him into two other advancing foes.

She needed this. Needed to feel like she could do something. To feel her own strength. To know she wasn't worthless. That she wasn't a failure. Most importantly, she needed an outlet for all the frustration and hopelessness that had clouded her mind over the last couple of days.

An engine igniting from behind caught her attention. _Looks like one of the morons found a forklift to play with._ The piece of machinery sped towards her with murderous intentions, ready to plow her over. Jo didn't move. Instead she waited until it got just close enough, before jumping straight though the cockpit, grabbing the man's collar, and shooting right out the back with the flailing man in her grasp.

Straightening for the jump, Jo dropped the unconscious man (who'd probably passed out from fright) just in time to catch a blow to the back of her leg that brought her to her knees. Apparently, she missed one. The thug pulled back his board for another swing. This time aiming for the gunslinger's head. His plan didn't play out as expected though.

A few inches from her head, she caught the board and wrestled it out of his grip. Within seconds, she was on him, knocking him to the ground and continually beating him with his own weapon until he coughed up teeth. Her victory was short lived though, as she realized backup had arrived.

A light blinded her as a thug on a motorcycle entered their self-proclaimed battlefield. When her sight adjusted to the sudden light it seemed she was surrounded once more by her enemies. It wasn't as many as the first wave but they certainly did come more prepared. To Jo, though, the odds didn't matter.

"What are you waiting for? Let's get this over with! WELCOME TO HELL!"

Shortly after Jo's enraged battle cry, her foes charged at her, the motorcycle zooming towards her as it's driver swung his chain over his head. Jo prepared herself... as a string of unexpected events played out before her. There was a loud popping sound, and the motorcycle began to swerve out of control. Flipping forward, it dislodged it's driver and eliminated any threat it might have posed.

Without the motor noise, a bang could be heard as a man to Jo's left dropped to the ground. Then another. And another.

'_WHAT THE-' _Jo did her best to survey the land around her, looking for the source of the noise. Someone somewhere was shooting at them. Where were they? Who was it? Was it another enemy? Possibly one with _really_ bad aim.

Another man, nowhere remotely near Jo, who was being shot down squashed that idea. Was it possibly they were on her side? Had she pissed Sei off enough this time that she came all the way down here to make sure of her safety? It was very unlikely.

Carefully dodging oncoming attacks from the members of the gang, who apparently weren't smart enough to notice their own men were being shot down around then, Jo continued to search for the shooter. It wasn't easy, though. The gunslinger wondered how she could have been so careless to get surrounded like this. While battling off two buffed up thugs at the once, a man stalked towards her, swinging a bat. Another bang ended his advance on the occupied gunslinger. He dropped to the ground with blood draining from his mouth.

Defeating the last of her attackers, Jo caught sight of the shooter. On the building right across from her position, she could just make out a shadowy figure. The tip of their gun gleaming in the moonlight.

Seeing it was spotted, the figure quickly turned away and Jo lost sight of them. They were escaping off the roof!

"Oh no you don't!" Jo barked, before running to cut them off.

The angry gunslinger got there just in time to see the shooter jump down from the fire escape. Before properly touching down on the ground, Jo grabbed the gun currently strapped on the shooter's back and threw them against the wall. Pinning them there by their wrists.

Before the silver haired girl could utter a question, the shadowy figure spoke. "Well that's a fine way to treat someone who just saved your ass."

At the sound of the shooter's voice the bewildered woman backed away, allowing the figure to step out of the shadows.

With great relief and disbelief, Jo somehow managed to mutter a single word, almost afraid if she said it out loud, it wouldn't be real.

"Meg?"

The street lights reflected off the girl's red hair and she wore a cheeky smile. "Were you expecting someone else?"

A/N: YaY! Meg has been found but where has she been all this time? Who knows? oh wait, I do. You'll just have to find out later. hehehehehehehehe!


	3. Found

A/N: Sorry this took so long. Studying for the SATs doesn't leave alot of time for story making. And now without further delay, the long ( hopefully not that long) awaited chapter 3. Wish me luck on my testing.

Chapter 3

Found

Meg stopped outside the trailer and stared at it intensely, almost as if looking for something.

"Meg?"

Meg turned around to find Jo right behind her. She'd been like that since they met in the harbor. Always only a few feet away, not letting Meg leave her sight, even for a moment. Not that she minded.

"Oh sorry. I just... wanted to take in the view." She paused to look around before meeting Jo's eyes again. "It feels like it's been forever since I've been here, since I've seen you."

She reached a hand up to touch the gunslinger's face but stopped. Something twinkled in her eye before she hesitantly let it drop to her side. There was a short pause before she spoke again. "We should go inside and try to fix the damage I caused _this_ time. I'm sure I'm in for long night ahead of me."

Jo watched the red head walk away while a certain unease settled in her chest. She didn't feel that emotion very often and quite frankly she didn't care for it very much. Something just didn't sit well with her about this. When the gunslinger caught up to the girl, it was plain to see that she was nervous about entering the trailer for some reason.

"Hey, let me go in first. Sei's already pissed at me and seeing you just might make her forget about all this."

Meg nodded thankfully at her, apparently Jo going in first was just what she needed.

--

Hearing the door open, Sei stormed into the room, hell-bent on confronting the silver haired gunslinger.

"Dammit Jo. Would it kill you to listen to me for once?"

"Sei-"

"I don't want to hear it. What the hell were you thinking?! Needlessly putting yourself in even more danger than usual and for what? So you can bust a few heads and-"

"Sei."

Something about the way Jo said her name made her pause. Amy curiously poked her head in at the sudden silence as Kyohei decided to finish his cooking later and relocate himself to a safer place in the living room. A sudden sense of forboding hung in the air of their little trailer.

Jo's ghost of a smile cut though the intention that seemed to be collecting in the room. Or doubled it depending on how you looked at it.

"Look what I found."

Jo stepped away from the stairs as a head of red hair became visible to the onlookers iside of the trailer. It stopped shortly and a low rumble founds it's way to their ears.

Bouncing fully into view, Meg clinged to her stomach, saying "Jeez, what does a girl have to do to get some food around here?"

From then on the night seemed to slip pleasantly by. Jo had taken a seat and watched as everybody else just stood there gaping at Meg in a moment of disbelief. They got over it quickly, though. Soon, Meg found herself tackle-hugged to the ground uncharacteristically by both Amy and Kyohei at roughly the same time. She struggled to get up, but it was a futile effort under the monstrous grip of her two relieved friends. It was only after Sei told them to did they unwilling let her go.

While Meg tried to regain her barrings, the little computer wiz got herself to, hesitantly and rather forcefully, say she was sorry. Before the confused red head could ask her what for, the little girl stomped off, avoiding any further word on the matter.

Kyo showed his gratitude for her return in a much different way, one of the few ways he knew how, and one he was sure she would appreciate: With food.

As soon as he set the plate in front of her, Meg barely gave herself enough time to say thanks before diving right in. She ate like a mad woman, but then Jo remembered she usually ate like that to begin with.

"So are you going to tell us?"

Meg stopped mid-chew before looking up at Sei.

Taking her silence as a form of confusion, the older woman rephrased her question. "Are you going to tell us where you've been this past week? What happened to you?"

The red head wiggled her fork in her mouth a bit before fully chewing her food, needing the time to figure out what she was going to say.

She swallowed. She knew she'd have to tell them eventually.

She sighed. "No time like the present, I guess....Well as you guys know I went out shopping that day. I got the groceries without any problems and was even able to get the movie I wanted even though it was a new release. Everything was going well....until my way back anyway."

Meg stopped to poke at her food. The pause made Jo tense. Her silence was very unsettling. Hell, you could barely get the girl to shut up half the time. The possibilities of what might of happened circled around in the gunslinger's thoughts until she was almost sick with them. The red head would be lucky if she was ever let out of the safety of her own room after this.

Jo snapped out of her thoughts when Meg spoke again. In her own way, wanting to give the girl the attention and confidence she needed to continue her story.

"Well you guys know me. I'm always finding trouble," Meg said, sounding distant and tired. "I just _had_ to take that alleyway. I wanted to get home as soon as possible and it's not like I haven't taken that way before so I didn't see any problems there. Anyway, as I was walking down the alleyway a cat jumped out and scared me, making me drop the movies. I was too busy picking them up to see them coming. There were two of them....They were fighting over something and I got in the way somehow."

She stopped again, apparently deep in thought, and began running her finger tips over the back of her neck. She blinked back to reality and Meg realized everyone was watching her intensely, waiting for the story to continue. Most of them were leaning in, even Sei herself, listening eagerly. Jo had gone from choking the table to putting her hands in her lap to keep the other from noticing how hard they shook.

Meg gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of her head. "Anyway, those two started to fist fight and I couldn't get out of the way fast enough and I ended up getting knocked out accidentally."

"That's it?!" Kyohei bashed his head on the table and kept it there. Both relieved and somewhat disappointed.

"Jesus Meg. You gave me a heart attack. Don't get us worked up like that." The little computer wiz wined.

"So what happened after that?" Sei asked, putting everything back on track.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not really sure."

The others looked at the red headed girl, confused.

"It's all kinda blurry. I'm told a woman found me lying in the alleyway. No one was around and she said she couldn't wake me up to contact anyone. It was starting to rain harder at the time, so out of the goodness of her old heart, she took me home with her. I woke up a couple days later with a pounding headache in a room I didn't recognize without any idea where I was or how I got there. I had to admit, it was pretty scary. And worst of all i got a hell of a cold from the rain."

Jo made a noise that caught Meg's attention. It almost sounded like a scoff.

The noise was unintentional of course, so Jo had to cover it up. "Nothing. Tell us what happened next."

_"Anyways, _the woman who rescued me was very persistent and really old timey. She wouldn't let me leave until I was at perfect health again. I would have called but my phone was ruined by the rain and she didn't have a single phone in her house, not that she liked me out of the room she practically locked me in anyway. What a weirdo." Finally finished with her tale, Meg went back to eating.

"Taking care of you is great and all, but why didn't she just take you to a hospital or something?" Amy huffed, clearly wondering why someone would go though all that trouble for a complete stranger.

Meg shrugged. "She said she didn't believe in it. Something about her religion."

Jo nodded before asking."What about the people that attacked you?"

"No one attacked me Jo. I got in the way. The woman said no one was around, so I guess they ran off or something. Hey, can I get another plate of this?"

Kyohei, finally lifting his head from it's position on the table, nodded and got up to get her some seconds. Sei started to notice how much the recently found girl was eating.

"You said this woman took care of you, but didn't she feed you? You're acting like you're starving."

Meg looked away as a _barely noticeable _faint blush smeared her cheeks. "Sure she did. I just really missed Kyohei's cooking."

The next twenty minutes were spent listening to Amy continually tease Meg about how she was secretly in love with Kyohei and how attractive she was to old ladies, which _had to be _the only reason one would think to take her home. Jo had to admit, hearing those two argue again was almost comforting. Her unease had faded but wasn't completely gone. Meg's behavior earlier was troubling. Her silences were unnerving and her story sounded unbelievable but not impossible. Jo was sure Meg wouldn't lie to them about something like this. Or at least not to her...right?

Reentering the room, the gunslinger automatically became aware of the red head's missing presence. _'Dammit. I knew I should have taken her to the bathroom with me. I let her out of my sight for one second and-'_

"She's on the roof."

Jo turned to find Sei reading her newspaper at the table, now that she had the time to do so.

"You didn't think we'd keep an eye on her? She went up there after Amy got tired of teasing her and went to bed. She said she needed some fresh air and told us to tell you when you came back." She turned a page of her newspaper and gave her a look that said 'get going and let me read in peace'.

Jo took the hint and climbed up on the roof. Sure enough there she was, just as Sei said she would be. She stared up at the stars with her knees tucked under her chin, hper red flaming hair swaying slightly in the night time breeze.

"Never do that again."

Meg didn't need to look to know Jo was standing beside her. Nor did she have to ask her what she was talking about. She knew she wasn't talking about disappearing to go sit on the roof. She was talking about disappearing where she couldn't find her period.

As Jo sat down Meg smiled at her. They sat in silence, just enjoying each other's company for a few minutes. It was nice. Up until Jo got up again and started towards the trailer's enterance.

"Where are you going?" Meg asked.

"To get those movies we didn't get to watch."

"What? Those were due days ago."

"And?" With that Jo left to get them.

Meg smiled at the spot the gunslinger used to be before looking up at the stars again. A sudden ring from her pocket seem to wipe the smile off her face. Without looking Meg pulled a black Razor phone out of her pocket and flicked it open before putting it up to her ear.

There were no hellos between them. Just a question that would have seemed pleasant if not for the subject it was asking about.

_"So how did it go?" _

Meg sighed and tucked a hair behind her ear. "Very well actually.... They all seemed so happy to see me."

_"I take it they bought it then. You sound sad. Were you expecting something different?" _

The red head paused. What was she expecting?

"_Meg listen to me. They're still your friends. Of course they would miss you. And you didn't really lie to them. Most of the stuff you told them really happened."_

" We still left out a lot."

"_We agreed it was for the best. Didn't we?"_

She sighed again. "Yeah. Yeah we did."

_"Good. I guess I'll leave you alone. For now. I expect a call from you in the next couple of days and if anything goes wrong DON'T hesitate to contact me."_

Before Meg could answer, the phone hung up. The red head pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. Half wishing she could crush it in her hands and half wishing she was talking to the woman who just called her in person. A clang behind her told her Jo was back. Quickly putting the phone back in her pocket, Meg turned to see her entering the roof with some movies and her portable T.V set.

"So you're telling me you haven't taken this movies back yet."

"Haven't watched them." The gunslinger gruffed.

"Why not? I thought you really wanted to see that one."

Jo plugged in the T.V "You said we'd watch them together. You weren't here."

At the gunslinger's simple answer, Meg was a little taken back. But then she smiled. "What are we watching first?"

Jo gave a small smile of her own before popping a movie in.

------

A/N: Eh, the ending was so fluffy, it made me itch. I don't do romance very often, so I'm a little rusty. I don't think Jo realizes how awkward some of her thoughts are. The bathroom comment made me wonder about things. And I'm the one writing it! Anyway if you want the next chapter you have to review. It motivates me. Oi, is it just me or are these chapters getting longer?


	4. Concerns

A/N: Oi, man I've been so out of it lately. I made a few changes to my previous chapters. Nothing too noticeable, just a few grammar and spelling errors. And a few missing words I didn't notice somehow. So the story line's still the same but dudes, I'm starting to think I need a Beta or something. Anyways, let's hope this chapter has less errors then the last.

**Fear me, for I am the almighty beta reader! Come to fix your grammer and read the story before you! Bwahahahahaaaa!**

Chapter 4

Concerns

Jo sank lower in her seat as the taxi slowed to a stop at the red light, trying to blur the sounds of the traffic around them, yet somehow at the same time remain on guard. That morning she woke up to a very pleasant sensation, one she hadn't experienced in weeks. Meg, during one of her restless dream fits, had somehow wrapped herself around the gunslinger and clung to her, possibly mistaking her for her pillow. Either way, Jo couldn't say she really minded, she sort of took comfort in the gesture, intentional or not.

For the past couple of days, Jo noticed a very discouraging pattern Meg had seem to have taken up. The red-head and the gunslinger had always been close, ever since Meg tried to give her backup after the first time they met. This was no big secret but somehow, Jo had the sneaking suspension that the younger woman was....avoiding her?

Well, not really. It wasn't like Meg left the room when ever Jo walked in. It was something smaller than that. Something more subtle. Subtle to the point that Jo was sure only she would notice it.

Recently, the red head had been....distant. Almost as if something inside the younger woman was shifting itself away from her. Given the way Meg had always been with Jo, close, clingy, and with a certain understanding of the gunslinger's works, she had come to realize a slightly disturbing shift in the younger woman's reaction to her.

Sure, Meg wasn't spending any less time with her than normal, in fact they were around each other more than usual if that was even possible. The red head actually sat though an entire "Fright night movie" marathon without taking a short break between each movie to calm down as she normally did when she attempted such things. Jo was aware of how frightened the younger woman got during these viewings but not once did Meg cling to her as she usually did. Not that she wasn't scared. Jo could see her jump and shake with fear each time the villain popped out from the corner of her eye. Those kind of reserves were the beginning of the gunslinger's suspensions.

One day Jo decided to act upon her thought. It was while they sat down for lunch, Meg sat across the table from her, still close but not touching. That seemed to be where the problem started. _Not touching. _Gradually the gunslinger became aware that the younger woman had stopped touching her. In fact, not once since her return from her absence had Meg consciously touched her. No holding hands, no arm glomps, hell, not even a brief brush in the hallway. It was as if she did so intentionally. It was at this point Jo decided to test her theory.

The gunslinger waited until the best possible moment before reaching over to grab the ketchup ,as if she was going to use it, and _accidentally_ grabbing Meg's hand instead, who just so happened to be reaching for it at the same time she was. Unfortunately Meg, subtly, but still too quickly for her liking, slipped her hand out from under Jo's.

To the on-lookers in the trailer, it appeared as if their hands just bumped each other's and Meg let her use the ketchup first, but Jo felt differently.

She wasn't sure what to think of it. Though Meg might have been avoiding contact with her for some unknown reason, it didn't stop her from sleeping in the same bed they shared. Sometimes, Jo would just sleep on the couch if Meg was already asleep, or if she looked like she wanted to sleep alone for once, but since they met in the harbor there had been no such case. Oddly enough, during her sleep seemed to be the only time Meg _did_ touch her, though most of it was accidental.

That was also another thing Jo noticed; Meg's sleeping pattern. The red-head's sleep recently had been restless. It wasn't unusual now for the younger woman to babble incoherently, or to toss and turn while dreaming. There had been a couple of occasions were Jo woke up because Meg violently kicked her or was nuzzling her neck.

This brought another issue to light. Meg wasn't exactly an early bird. Nor was she a night owl either. Yet lately you'd be lucky if you could wake her before noon. She slept like a rock in the mornings despite her restless nights. It used to be every blue moon that Jo would wake up before Meg did but now.....Well to be honest it still didn't happen very often. They just _both_ slept in until Meg finally arose herself or someone came in to wake them.

Which brought her to the point where she was now. After waking up before Meg, savoring her unconscious affection, at around one in the afternoon, Sei had knocked on their door. Gently untangling herself so not to wake the sleeping redhead, she answered it.

She could see the older woman was surprised that she was the one answering the door for a change, but didn't comment on it. Instead Sei told her she had an emergency meeting with Bai Lan and needed someone to go with Amy to pick up some new upgrades, since it was proven last time she went shopping in that part of town that it was dangerous and taking Kyohei was just as effective as letting her go by herself in her opinion.

Not wanting to put Meg in anymore potentially dangerous situations, she volunteered. She was pretty sure Sei knew she would feel that way and used it to her advantage. A few grueling hours later, finding out the market Amy heard rumors about that sold her precious upgrades had moved to another location on the other side of town, the sun had gone down and Jo was still shopping with the little girl determined to get what she wanted, and wasn't going back without it.

The gunslinger had half a mind to just sling the computer wiz over her shoulder and tell her to suck it up so they could return back to the trailer. For some reason she didn't though, and decided to use this time to figure out what she was going to do with Meg, or if there was anything she _could _do, and if there was anything she really needed to fix. For all she knew, she could be looking too far into this and imagining things. It could just be a phase or something. Either way the gunslinger mulled over several possibilities and situations that could fix or have possibly led to this. Many of them weren't very pleasant.

At one point Jo briefly attempted to tell herself that Meg was just fine. She's probably just waiting around for her to come home and that everything would work itself out in time. Of course that thought didn't last very long either.

-----

Though at that moment, Jo couldn't have known how wrong that brief thought was. At that precise moment, Meg was in a full on run and desperately trying to pick up enough speed to scale the large wall coming up in front of her. Sure, she could have gone around it (if she wanted to add another three blocks to her trip) but right now she just didn't have the time.

_'What on earth could that damn crazy woman want from me now?' _The red-head grumbled as she pulled herself over the wall. And to think the day started off so well. Well, not really. That would've been a lie.

Waking up to an empty trailer was in itself a rude wakening. Meg was on the verge of a panic when she found a note explaining everyone's absence. After that she didn't really mind. It was almost dinner time and Kyohei's presence ensured that she wasn't alone for long. Seeing that she'd slept most of the day away worried her a little. It was just one of many things she would have to ask about later when she had the chance.

About an hour into her conversation with the young cook, her phone rang and "demanded her immediate presence." (Her words, not Meg's.) After that the red head stormed out of the trailer like hell was on her heels. She hoped Kyohei didn't mind too much. In fact, he didn't think anything of it at all. He just though the person Meg spoke with must have been Sei or Amy. As far as he knew Jo didn't like cell phones, but that was beside the point.

Huffing and puffing, Meg continued her sprint up several flights of stairs to gain access to the roof. (It was necessary to reach the meeting place.) Meg didn't understand why the woman picked such a strange place to meet. Then again it wasn't very strange for _her_. In fact, Meg almost expected this even in the short time she had known her.

Reaching the top, the red head kicked the door open to the roof, mainly because she didn't have the time to slow down and mess with the rusty lock that looked like it was ready to crumble anyway. The person Meg was running to meet wasn't a very patient woman. The longer she kept her waiting the longer... she dreaded to think about it.

Meg's chest began to burn just as she realized she would have to jump from rooftop to rooftop to reach her goal.

_'She did this a purpose. She picked this place to make things harder for me. I just know it.'_ The red head would have whined but she figured she'd better save the breathe she still had left.

The jump wasn't that bad , she had to admit. Only 2 to 3 feet between each building, nothing too difficult. If only she didn't have to cover so many. Jumping over another gap, Meg tried to recall why, exactly, she always did what this crazy woman asked of her.

But then she remembered. The answer was more simple then she would have liked, but it was obvious.

Because she had too.

Then Meg began to panic. The gaps she was jumping were getting bigger.

'_Almost there. Almost there.'_ She chanted to herself to keep moving. '_Just one more now. I'm sure of it.'_

Fear found itself present in the back of her mind. The last jump between the two buildings were much bigger then the others. A good five feet she would have guessed. She would have prayed but she barely had enough air left to wheeze, let alone speak.

Crap, she didn't have time to catch her breath, and she couldn't possibly slow down. It was too late for that anyway. Her lungs burned as she pushed the last of her strength into picking up more speed. She only hoped it was enough.

She jumped!

Half way across the gap, it became apparent that it wasn't enough. She was a little short. Just before the landing, the tip of Meg's boot caught the edge of the building and sent her tumbling. Ultimately causing her to face plant on the roof's floor before skidding the rest of the way on her nose.

When she finally stopped, she made no move to get up. Ignoring the pain to her face, she tried desperately to catch her breath.

If she had more uses of her lungs she would have laughed. She made it in one piece. Her self-proclaimed victory however, was short lived. The sharp click of someone's heel against gravel made the younger woman aware that she wasn't alone, but once again she made no attempt to move, not even to see who it was. Why should she anyway?

She already knew who it was after all.

A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger guys. I'm just so tired. I figured I made you wait long enough for this but after I finished those stupid research papers, all I want to do is sleep. I'll see if I can finish the next chapter tomorrow. No promises.


	5. Of ice cream and such

A/N: Holy crap. It's been far too long since I'veupdated on this. I must apologize for that. I had a lot going on at the time. From graduation to starting off in college, it was hard to find a spare moment where my creative abilities wanted to cooperate. Ok, I have to mention on more thing before starting off the chapter. As some of you might be aware of, Burst angels takes place in the future. Not very distant future but still in the future. Keep that in mind as you read this and you will understand some of the references and conversations that will be held throughout the story. It also hasn't been run through a beta reader yet, so you'll just have to deal with it.

Chapter 5

Of ice cream and such

Meg tensed but forced herself to relax, already knowing what she would see if she looked up.

Black boots, well worn but not scuffed, with sharp heels that clicked with each step yet were completely silent when their owner wanted to be. They stopped in front of the fallen red-head and began to tap out an impatient rhythm. Meg didn't even glance up when she heard the sound of moving fabric, (most likely something being pulled out of a pocket) she couldn't help but flinch at a small metal click that was loud enough that up until a week ago she would have thought it was right next to her ear.

"28 minutes and 11 seconds. So did you take the long way or are you just getting slow on me?"

"You've got to be kidding me." Meg mumbled almost to herself while looked up at the woman who was now swinging a small stop watch around with her finger.

The irritated red head huffed and pulled herself to her feet.

"Please, for all that is good and holy in the world, tell me I did not just haul my ass all the way here for you just to time me." She put more enthusiasm in the word just then necessary.

"One should use the opportunities they're given." She said, unfazed.

"Opportunities?!" Meg gawked, suppressing the urge to strangle someone.

She shrugged, once again unaffected by the red head's over exaggerated gestures. The woman appeared as if she had gotten use to the tempered girl's rather explosive emotions, while Meg, on the other hand, was still trying to adjust to the mere presence of the woman before her.

Meg wasn't sure what annoyed her more, the way the older woman reacted to most things as if it was no big deal, like she had done so a million times before or the fact that regardless of how many times the red head met with her…she still couldn't read the woman very well.

Now Meg was normally very good at judging people through their appearance. A trait she quickly picked up while living on the streets way back when. It was necessary if she was going to pick the safest target for her and the kids to…uh, seek donations from. Of course, what went on inside their head was still a mystery to her. Though within reason, she could relatively gauge if a person could be potentially dangerous or just another born sucker.

And yet, no matter how long the red head studied the woman before her, the most she got out of it was a big whopping pot of nothing. Well nothing solid anyway.

The woman's appearance contradicted it's self in many ways. She looked reasonable young but at the same time appeared ageless, making her age was impossible to put your finger on. If Meg had to guess she would have put her around late 20s and possible somewhere in her 30s, though her dark emerald eyes spoke volumes against it. Her eyes were.....old.

Meg knew how stupid that must sound but she couldn't think of any other word for it. They were...intense, watchful. Like they took in everything. They were filled with a wisdom the younger woman couldn't possible understand.

The woman pushed back her midnight black hair and gracefully replaced the stopwatch back into her pocket, at the same time retrieving a handkerchief and gently grabbing Meg's chin.

"It never ceases to amaze me how every time I see you, you somehow land on your face. Perhaps your clumsiness was reason for your delay." She grinned, dabbing the tip of the handkerchief with her tongue and started to wipe the dirt off the red head's face.

Meg's nose tingled but not in an unpleasant way.

"Not everyone can get here as fast as I did you know. And I'm not clumsy! You try scaling a 10 foot wall and make it here in less than…." She paused when she realized who she was talking to. "Never mind, you should be happy I made it here at all-ouch!" She hissed as the woman brushed her nose a bit too rough, probably to get her attention.

"Why should I be happy when I know you're capable of getting here in half the time if you just put your mind to it?" She dabbed the rag again.

"See, this only confirms my suspicions that you're delusional. It would be impossible to-". Meg was cut off by the grip on her chin tightening, not quite to the point of pain but the warning was clear.

"No excuses. You would be amazed by the things you could accomplish simply by believe it is possible. Right now the only think holding you back is your own mind. "

The red head rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, I've heard this speech before, like a million times already."

"Good. Then maybe one day you'll get it through your head instead of rolling your eyes." She released the girl's face. "Am I understood?"

Meg rubbed her chin.

"Yes M-". The red head snapped her mouth shut, almost biting off her tongue in the process. She had almost said it. Again. Nothing left such a bad taste in her mouth as that word did and yet she felt compelled to say it. Over and over again without fail, every time it took a major shot to her ego.  
It would be easier she supposed, if she could just blame it on the woman in front of her but she didn't want Meg to call her that anymore then the red head wanted to say it.

A silence went on between them until the woman decided to speak.

"Kate." She corrected. "Just call me Kate. If you keep that upmost in your mind perhaps the urge will vanish. "

Meg shuffled uncomfortable. "Yeah, maybe…so what did you call me down here for anyway?

"I need ice cream."

"…..what?"

"Ice cream. You know, milk that has been cultivated and favored then frozen for preparation, widely served as a frozen treat since it was invented in-."

"I know what ice cream is. What I can't seem to grasp is why you would call me and urgently demand my presence just for THAT!" The red head was sure she was about to lose her ever loving mind. Exactly what was karma punishing her for? Surely she had to do something wrong to deserve this.

"I've had a sudden craving for it lately. It's been far too long since I've had any and there's no time like the present, you know." She turned to walk away, completely ignoring the fumes that were surely rising from Meg's head.

"And I wouldn't say 'urgently'. I merely requested your assistants." Kate called over her shoulder.

"What fantasy are you living in? Allow me to quote you." Meg pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and delayed it almost like a showgirl would a prize from 'the price is right' in a very mocking manner. "I'm afraid your immediate presence is required and is demeaned for you to be at the meeting point in, oh let's say, twenty five minutes. "

Kate stopped mid stride. "…were those my exact words?"

"You didn't even say good bye. I honestly thought the military stole your phone to call me in for some kind of secret mission or something. We're lucky only Kyohei was there. God knows how I was going to explain this to anyone else…. And would it kill you to at least say hi before ordering me around?"

"If it was only for ice cream Meg, I would have made thirty. We have things to discuss."

Meg perked up. "Things? What sort of things?" She was dreading the sound of this already.

"All sorts. Now come along, we don't have all night." Kate began to walk again.

The red head followed in suit, shaking her head. "Couldn't we have done this over the phone?

"I highly doubt it. Conversations like this are better in person and I'm sure your friends would have wondered who were on the phone with after some time." The midnight beauty grinned back at her. "Beside, I'm bad with direction."

"Well that's great. I'm wonderful with direction. I can tell you right now. Do you know where Frank's hotdog stand is on the corner a block from here?" Meg figured she needed to get out of there as soon as possible. God knows when Jo will get home and without her there….it couldn't end well.

Kate stopped again to give her an unreadable look. "No."

Of course she wouldn't know. Frank's only works during the day and for all Meg knew, Kate only came out at night.

Meg felt tempted to smack herself. Of course she wouldn't know. Frank only works during the day and for all Meg knew, Kate only came out at night.

"Okay then, how about the half-priced market beside Becket and Main?"

The other woman pinched the bridge on her nose and sighed. "No Meg. Not that either."

This time the red head did smack herself. "You're hopeless. Fine then, what _DO_ you know that's around here?"

Kate paused a minute to look around. "Well, I believe the last time I was in this area there was an ice cream shop by Jin Ko's burger barn."

"Never heard of it."

"Not surprising. That was about five years ago and I highly doubt its still there. A shame really, that was the last place I had a decent burger, haven't had one since. How on earth you people eat your food with so much artificial flavoring I will never know."

Meg back stepped it. "Whoa whoa whoa! Stop, rewind, and pause! Did you just say you haven't had a burger in five years?! "

"I believe I did. You seemed oddly surprised by this." She turned to walk away again.

"Are you kidding? I can't imagine not having anything for five years, let along a burger. You must live one hell of a sheltered life."

Kate scoffed. "Hardly. If you're shocked by this, imagine what it must be like for the monks of the Alphas who take vows of silence for decades at a time, never to speak a word till they're vows are complete."

The red head paused in shock. "That is the single most insane thing I've ever heard. Tell me they don't still do that. I think I'm going crazy just thinking about it. "

"So melodramatic, you're being ridiculous." Kate continued, just as she walked off the side of building and dropped the remaining three stories.

"And I'm the one being dramatic?" Meg leaned over the building to see Kate brushing off her coat as if she just jumped the last step on a staircase instead of off an entire building.

The red head couldn't help but shake her head.

"Come on. You're burning the midnight oil." The other woman waved her down.

"Ha ha. Funny Kate. Real funny. No really, you should be a comedian."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a few feet."

"A few feet!? Excuse me; maybe you can't see it from down there but that looks like a couple of stories to me. I'm more afraid of losing my brain to the payment."

"Fine." Meg could hear her eyes roll. "I'll catch you if that makes you feel better."

It didn't. In fact, it was even more frightening.

"You know, it took several months for some poor construction workers to make those stairs. It would be a shame not to use them. "

"Meg." Her tone was neither harsh nor loud (considering the distance between them) but firm enough to send her message.

As soon as her tone reached Meg's ear, the red head kicked at a piece of gravel and sighed in defeat. Covering her eye she stepped, no jumped off the building, knowing that with a second thought she wouldn't be able to do it.

* * *

A/N: Sorry. That's all I got for now. If you're confused about where the story is going, well you're suppose to be. All will be relieved in time. This is the last story I ever do on a whim without sorting through the plot first. I swear I'll update soon. I've finally got time on my hands.


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